{"id":162876,"date":"2016-05-24T13:14:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T07:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=162876"},"modified":"2016-05-30T01:35:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T20:05:28","slug":"the-floods-get-me-a-pencil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-floods-get-me-a-pencil\/","title":{"rendered":"The Floods: Get Me A Pencil"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Yudhanjaya Wijeratne<\/span><\/a> \u2013 <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Yudhanjaya<\/a>

Yudhanjaya Wijeratne<\/p><\/div>\n

If there is such a thing as too much goodwill, I think I\u2019ve seen it. Gripped by a desire to help out our fellow Sri Lankans, we\u2019ve cooked, screamed, delivered, run supplies by the truckload and picked clean the shelves of our supermarkets.<\/p>\n

The result? Incredible good \u2013 people fed, clothed, supported to another day by people they\u2019ve never even heard of; and at the same time, incredible waste \u2013 truckloads of spoiled food, supplies being shuttled with no tracking or double-checking, massive oversupply to areas like Aranayake and Wellampitiya while camps like Wattala struggled to make do, well-meaning volunteers heading out to areas they\u2019re barely capable of surviving in, let alone helping. And chaos on every possible front.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t blame anyone. To be honest, I\u2019ll take the good and the bad over indifference any day. And yes, there\u2019s plenty of indifference \u2013 I see enough of it walking into work. But enough people reached out to truly make the gigantic task ahead of us bearable.<\/p>\n

The situation right now<\/strong><\/p>\n

Major areas that were hit \u2013 judging by severity and freqeuncy of donation requests \u2013 are Aranayake, Wellampitiya, Kelaniya, Wattala. Secondary points seem to be Kilinochchi, Kolonnawa, Biyagama, Malwana, Athurugiriya, Avissawella and Kaduwela. New camps have been set up Atkalupahana, Digala, Maniyangama and Boralankada. There are isolated pockets popping up all over the map that are unaccounted for \u2013 usually clusters of between 100 and 200 people.<\/p>\n

Aranayake<\/strong> is landslide turf. It\u2019s getting the most amount of media attention, and is oversupplied with dry rations (rice, dhal, soya, milk powder) and in need of with what I call Stage 2 essentials \u2013 candles, clothes, soap, underwear \u2013 all the requirements that come immediately after a meal in the belly.<\/p>\n

Kelaniya<\/strong> is muddy diseased hellhole 101 from what I\u2019ve seen. Water is everywhere and disease is spreading, even among the volunteers. It\u2019s undersupplied on every front but badly needs medicine, medical personnel and swimmers to combat the conditions.<\/p>\n

Wellampitiya<\/strong> is returning to normalcy. While most of the electricity grid is out, people are moving back in and cleaning up.<\/p>\n

Wattala<\/strong> is a network of 9 camps held together mostly by one central Army camp, and it\u2019s the subject of sporadic lack of cooked food. Dry rations are being stocked and it\u2019s limping along two days at a time.<\/p>\n

Atkalupahana, Digala, Maniyangama and Boralankada<\/strong> are brand-new camps sorely in need of everything, including dry rations.<\/p>\n

Biyagama, Malwana, Kolonnawa\/IDH and Athurugiriya<\/strong> are flooded in pockets, and while they\u2019re sorted for rations, they need underwear, candles, soap, toothbrushes, medicine \u2013 more Stage 2.<\/p>\n

A complete list of items required has been released by the DMC and is available here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Note that this may or may not tally with our observations. I make no claim for the accuracy of the DMC. Here\u2019s a general list for cleaning and reclamation<\/span><\/a> put together by one of my co-workers for donations. For posterity, here\u2019s the old Google sheet we were using a couple of days ago<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

What is the government doing?\"Maithripala\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Touching children who clearly don\u2019t want to be touched.<\/p>\n

Oh, and they\u2019ve allocated Rs 150 million for flood relief, apparently. Let me put that in perspective. Here\u2019s the math, courtesy of Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSri Lanka government has reportedly spent (budgeted? not sure) Rs. 150m for flood relief.<\/em><\/p>\n

In April, our parliamentarians voted to give themselves a USD 62,500 car permit to themselves:\u00a0https\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\u2026\/new-year-kokis-to-luxur\u2026\/<\/span><\/a>. Each permit has a street value of at least Rs. 20m \u2013 and for every such imported vehicle effectively way more in lost taxes. CONSERVATIVELY lets assume that the lost taxes is Rs. 25m.<\/em><\/p>\n

So 225 parliamentarians * 25m = Rs. 5,625M. So, the government has offered 2.66% of the LOST REVENUE only as floor relief.<\/em><\/p>\n

Put another way, they gave THEMSELVES a Rs. 20m*225 = Rs. 4,500M cash bonus in April. Flood relief is 3.33% of that.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ll leave it to you to decide which section of hell you want to reserve for the Parliament.<\/p>\n

What are volunteers doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A combination of running around like headless chickens and planning for the next steps.<\/p>\n

On my personal networks, the volunteer forces have coalesced into a handful of rough networks all relying on each other for transport and caching. We\u2019ve got the Without Borders crew hitting Aranayake and other centers relentlessly; a Kelaniya has turned into a full-fledged packing and distribution op with the help of Jessica Ferrari and others; the JCI center is running massive stockpiles and supplies out to every corner of the map; I\u2019m coordinating a loose cabal of people and supply caches servicing Wattala and Kelaniya; Aman Ashraff and others have been running to Avissawella and so on.<\/p>\n

There are others not recorded here, not because they\u2019re doing any less, but simply because this is where my tracking capability stops. We\u2019re operating mostly off a couple of Facebook and WhatsApp groups; it\u2019s chaos. On the ground, every day, are people who\u2019d warrant a Medal of Honor if we had that here.<\/p>\n

Private companies have done their part. JKH has reportedly inject 10 million worth of goods into the system. Takas.lk\u2019s handled over 2 million rupees in flood donations. I believe we (WSO2) have sent in about a quarter of that amount, and we definitely aren\u2019t the only ones. This money and goods are generally sent to the Air Force. PickMe is, of course, the hero of the day. And Sirasa seems to be fielding a veritable army of volunteers.<\/p>\n

And of course, you have the poseurs. Smile, kiddies.<\/p>\n

The mad rush for food is coming to an end. While we\u2019ll probably be stockpiling dry rations for the month, that\u2019s a job for the government. We\u2019re entering the second stage: sanitation. The need of the hour is Dettol, gloves, brushes, soap, personal sanitation stuff, rubber boots \u2013 things you need to recapture territory, so to speak. The third stage is, of course, cleanup and recovery. Some of us have started prepping for the long, slow climb \u2013 post-flood relief.<\/p>\n

What should we be doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Collect money.<\/p>\n

No, seriously. Unless you\u2019re a survival expert, unless you can pilot a 4\u00d74 or have heavy transport at your command, stay home. Collect money.<\/p>\n

At some point we have to transition from packing off x amount of supplies on a mate\u2019s jeep to a system of camps, close to the ground, that can monitor need and spend. That\u2019s where we\u2019ll need money. This is where the government needs to come in.<\/p>\n

The good news is that the government is finally getting off its ass and doing making noises. They may not be the right noises, but one hopes this stupid beast will come around \u2013 we can\u2019t keep this up forever.<\/p>\n

If you are a volunteer, be careful. Disease is spreading<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anyone coming into contact with the water should be aware of cuts, wounds and the possibility of dengue, dysentry, typhoid, tetanus and flat-out infection. Get gloves, talk to a doctor, arm yourself. Anisha Niyas pointed out that 200mg of Doxycycline taken weekly should help you, but don\u2019t take my word for it \u2013 double check, triple-check.<\/p>\n

As Faizer Shahied pointed out, cleaning up is difficult. I\u2019ll quote him: \u201cMake sure you wear the right kind of SHOES and not slippers (A mistake I made today). Use EKEL BROOM and not ordinary brooms. And cleaning a mess of this nature is very difficult without chemicals. Take pohora bags or any other suitable alternatives to put in the dirt, or its pointless simply cleaning without taking out the dirt. Make sure you and your team\/s are properly equipped.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

Why are you using Facebook? What about Sahana \/ DEWN \/ <insert software here>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People diss Facebook for being the chief cause of waste and overzealous volunteerism, but what they don\u2019t know is that it was tools like WhatsApp and Facebook that made even the slightest co-ordination possible.<\/p>\n

I was reminded today that tools like Sahana exist \u2013 but they don\u2019t exist for us. They exist only for a bunch of people in a government office. Apparently the National Disaster Relief Center had the tech. What use was that to us when the time came?<\/p>\n

Disaster Management tech\u2019s a wonderful thing \u2013 on paper. In practice, it\u2019s bollocks, especially when it comes to being used by volunteers. Here:<\/p>\n